Self-Development

One of the main focuses of this blog is to document my transition to a healthier lifestyle, and how you can, too. So, every now and then I’ve made sure to highlight my goals of trying to eat healthier and how I’ve attempted to lead a healthier lifestyle overall.

As of late, I haven’t mentioned it much because I’ve felt like I took two steps forward and five giant steps back. A few months ago, I had successfully weaned myself off soda, stopped eating candy, and was slowly but surely drinking more water every day. I had my meal planning and prepping down to a science and I felt awesome both physically and mentally.

Fast forward to today, and I’m back to drinking soda whenever I get the chance (i.e. whenever it’s free), have fallen behind in my Sunday meal prep (but I’m working on it), and I’m 90% sure these headaches I keep getting after practice are due to dehydration (oops). All in all, I haven’t gone back to square one, but I’m not where I want to be with my goals. All this means I’m going to start over in getting back into those great habits I was so proud of. So, today I’m sharing with you just how I transition and stick to healthy habits all in 2 easy ish steps!

Because of how hectic September was for me I couldn’t put together a good post on my goals for the month. Now that I’m back in Boston, and getting back into a stable routine, I’m jumping back into my monthly goals to keep track of what I want to get out of each month.

“People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
-Tony Robbins

If you follow me on Tumblr, then you’ll know that I love quotes. I think there’s a quote out there to describe whatever it is you’re feeling at whatever point you are in your life. Whether you’re at your lowest or highest, there’s always a quote you can find that you can relate to. I actually have an app on my phone that gives me daily quotes that I read every morning to get me going.

The quote for today is motivational in a different sense. Now that I’m a senior in college I reflect back on my years at BU more and more. During my time in college, specifically my freshman year, I was in the downward spiral described in the quote. I won’t go into much detail right now, but I was stuck in a cycle of failure. Digging my way up from there was, and sometimes still is, one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.

I’ve been extremely lucky, though. I have my family, my friends, teammates, and coaches to support me. I’ve always been one to keep my private life private, so most of those people have no idea how much they’ve helped and affected me, but I’ll always appreciate them for it. (For those that may be reading this right now, thank you!)

Now I’m finding more and more that my momentum has shifted upwards, and I am giving it my all to keep it that way. I guess the point of this is just to let you know that things may go wrong and you may seem to be stuck in a downward cycle, but there’s always hope for you to turn things around and work your way back up. I promise.

This week was testing week for my teammates and I! Testing week is essentially an athlete’s progress report that is done now and then to see how they are responding to training, and to highlight things they might need to work on as they continue with training.

I think testing is particularly helpful for athletes who have long training cycles. For track, the season doesn’t really get going for a few more months so testing breaks up training cycles and helps both you and your coach see how you’re responding to training. It’s also good motivation for the team and promotes bonding as you’re able cheer each other on and even compete against each other. Personally, I like testing because I can get bogged down and drained by continuous, drawn out training, and for me it really makes the next training cycle feel like a clean slate to work on.Continue reading “Testing Week! An Athlete’s Progress Report”→

If you’ve ever hung out with me or have ever seen me walking down the street, you’d know I always have a pair of headphones with me.

In fact, when I was packing for my summer training and competing with the Ghanaian National Athletics team, I made sure to pack 3 different pairs of headphones as back up. The pair I had been using at the time were cheap and had been known to break pretty often. (Even with 3 extra pairs, I still had to buy a new pair while I was abroad 😦 )

Basically, I can’t go very long in my daily life without music playing, workouts included. Sometimes as background noise, and sometimes as a way to get a burst of energy to finish my last rep, music really gets me going and makes even the worst of workouts just a bit better.

“That’s what our training is for, we practice not panicking, we practice breathing, we practice looking directly at the thing that scares us until we stop flinching, we practice overriding our Can’t.”
-Kristin Armstrong

A quote to get my week going. Something to remember when attacking those hard workouts – it’s all in preparation for the time when all you can rely on is your training and instincts.